Distance: 7.1 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Walk following the route of the Severn Way from Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire to Tewkesbury just inside, famed for the limestone Tewkesbury Abbey, ancient buildings and being where the Avon joins the Severn.
The Story
Route Notes
Getting Back
Where the Avon Meets the Severn
Tewkesbury sits right on the official boundary between the English Midlands and the southwest. It lies in Gloucestershire, but with the administrative boundary with Worcestershire forming its north edge.
Situated in the middle of the River Severn plain, roughly midway between the Malvern Hills slightly to the north, and the Cotswolds ridge running south to the east, the town grew up from the early middle ages at the place where the River Avon converges with the Severn.
Of all the mighty River Severn’s tributaries the River Avon is the most easterly rising, bubbling up in the village of Naseby, in mid-Northamptonshire, famed for being the place where the Royalists lost the first phase of the 17th Century Civil Wars. Tewkesbury itself was the site of a key battle during an earlier civil war, the War of the Roses, when there was a major bloody confrontation just west of the town in 1471.
Tewkesbury is the place where, having right across the central southern portion of the Midlands the Avon reaches the Severn. It is also roughly equidistant between the two little River Severn side cities of Worcester and Gloucester. In times gone past this made Tewkesbury an important river port, a role which for pleasure boaters it retains to this day. This means that the low-lying town, with the Avon flowing along the northern edge of its historic centre to meet the Severn, is unusually threatened by flooding. The most recent substantial inundation came in 2007 after which substantial works to protect the town against the increasing extremes of climate change took place.
Tewkesbury Abbey made from soft, yellow Cotswold stone was founded in 1121 as a monastery church. In common with a number of other great monastic places of worship around the UK it was saved from destruction during the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s when the townspeople of Tewkesbury bought it for what essentially amounted to its scrap value and turned it into their parish church. These days it is thought to be the second biggest parish church in England after Beverley Minster, another rare intact survival from the age of medieval monasticism.
To this day the 12th Century tower of the Abbey stands proud on the Tewkesbury skyline, vying with the mid-19th Century flour warehouse, derelict for the best part of the last 20 years, for status as key local landmarks amidst the flat lands of the River Severn plain. Prior to 1599 when it blew down during a storm the Abbey’s tower stood even taller due to a wooden spire. The Abbey, which is very much akin to a mini-cathedral, is purportedly constructed on the site where Theoc the 7th Century mystic from whose early English name Tewkesbury is derived, constructed a hermitage. Prior to the reformation Tewkesbury Abbey, which today is just over 100 metres long, as measured down the nave, was even longer, having a Lady Chapel which extended its length to 114 metres.
Beyond the abbey, Tewkesbury has numerous other ancient buildings, many fully or half timbered, dating back to the late middle ages or Early Modern period. Even the town’s Wetherspoons The Royal Hop Pole has a medieval banqueting hall ensconced within it. While Gloucestershire’s pub, the Black Bear (recently reopened after closing for several years), supposedly a licensed establishment since 1308, is also found in the town near the River Avon.
These day’s Tewkesbury is still expanding, the town having steadily grown in an easterly direction, away from the flood prone places where the rivers converge over the centuries to the point where over 20,000 people now call it home. The M5 bisects the bulk of Tewkesbury from Ashchurch where the town’s railway station stands. It is here, well within sight of the Cotswolds ridge, a good distance from the rivers that Tewkesbury continues its steady growth to this day.
Route Notes
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
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This walk from Upton-upon-Severn to Tewkesbury along the River Severn Path begins from Upton-upon-Severn town centre.
Upon alighting the bus at the stop in the town centre turn left and walk along past the White Lion Hotel, towards the River Severn.
Along the way you pass a string of the town’s numerous pubs and the pepper pot, its unusual dome topped former church tower, associated with an audacious assault by Parliamentarian forces prior to the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
At the river turn right walking along Dunn’s Lane towards the edge of the town centre.
Soon you reach a gateway leading out onto a broad floodplain type pasture stretching south away from Upton-upon-Severn.
Follow the well worn track right beside the river (check before heading out whether it is in flood as the path will likely be impassable if this is the case). Generally this stretch of the Severn Way is well waymarked, and the path is quite well scuffed from use so easy to follow.
On a good visibility day there should be fantastic views towards the Malvern Hills to the north west, and the Cotswolds ridge to the east, but the February day that I walked the route was overcast and long distance views were clouded out.
An early point of interest on the walk is the CEMEX owned quarry at Ryall which has a fleet of barges, all named after species of fish found in the River Severn, tied up, evidently used for carrying quarried material.
Throughout the walk the terrain the path traverses varies between thick swampy woodland, and more often large, open, riverside pastures.
At practically the midpoint between Upton-upon-Severn and Tewkesbury a striking viaduct carrying the M50 motorway west to Ross-on-Wye near the Welsh border in Herefordshire, spans the valley, running behind a prominent hill.
The underneath of the long thin bridge has a distinctive feel. A slice of modernism in an otherwise very rural landscape.
Beyond the M50 bridge the path continues much as before.
Presently the 45 metre tall medieval tower of Tewkesbury Abbey becomes visible on the horizon.
Then steadily the northernmost edge of the town, where the county boundary between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire lies, comes into view.
Crossing a water meadow you arrive at the 200 year old Mythe Bridge constructed under the supervision of Thomas Telford between 1823 and 1826. You cross it, to get over the Severn onto the bank of the river where Tewkesbury stands.
Passing Tewkesbury’s vast pumping station intended to protect the town from flooding you approach the River Avon cut along the A38.
You cross the old, natural channel of the Avon, onto a little island in the middle of the river where a cluster of building’s stands.
Then you reach the Mill Avon channel, thought to have been constructed as a shipping lane, and means of harvesting the Avon’s fall to power a mill, by the monks of Tewkesbury Abbey during the middle ages. Here you descend a flight of steps (slippy when I walked the route) and begin walking along the Mill Avon along the edge of the town centre.
Past the old, long derelict Victorian flour warehouse, which vies with Tewkesbury Abbey to command the town’s skyline, you cross a grand old metal bridge, then a new footbridge, to walk along some town land called the Severn Ham separating the Mill Avon from the River Severn.
Soon you reach a footbridge across the channel past the old mill, now flats, once served by the Mill Avon. On the far side of the river head up a lane lined with old timbered houses towards Tewkesbury Abbey.
At the top of the road opposite the Abbey you are in the heart of historic Tewkesbury.
Getting Back
Tewkesbury’s railway station is in Ashchurch around 2 miles from the town centre, but easy to walk along the main road. From there, there are hourly trains throughout the day south across Gloucestershire to Bristol, and north to Worcester from where trains can be caught north towards Birmingham, as well as west towards Hereford and north towards London. There is a fairly frequent bus service from Tewkesbury town centre to Ashchurch Station. The town centre is also a bus hub for services south into Gloucestershire, with other routes heading west into Herefordshire and north to destinations in southern Warwickshire.